Wright brothers didn't have the first aeroplane?

[Nemesis77]

Thanks to /.

Link

The kiwi, national symbol of New Zealand, is a bird that cannot fly.

How ironic that a New Zealander ? a Kiwi ? may have been first to solve the riddle of flight.

A sensitive, artistic man who refused to walk the path his parents set him on. A man forced to retreat behind high hedges by neighbours who feared he was beholden to the devil.

A prophet still without total honour in his own country.

The Wright Brothers? Orville-and-Wilbur-Come-Lately, say the people who believe Richard Pearse flew several times as the brothers worked on their Flyer in their Ohio bicycle shop.

 

[Larvae]

youre wrong i saw on bet that the ancient egyptians invented flight

 

[Linflas]

There are photographs and exact data to prove that Orville Wright made a 12-second, 36.6-metre flight at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, Dec. 17, 1903.

There's nothing but a handful of informally collected eyewitness accounts to confirm Pearse's first flight.

Photos and data win everytime over "informally collected eyewitness". The fact remains that not only did the Wrights keep very detailed documentation of their research they and others were able to build on their success.

 

[SuperCyrix]

His plane was alot more advance than the Wright's. It doesn't matter if there is not proof that he flew, he built a better plane.
I admire him for just wanting to fly and not caring about being in any record book. But even if he did build a better plane, he made no impact on the development of planes like the wright brothers.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I still give it up to the Wright Brothers because their plane was more of a success....it didn't exactly CRASH the same way as his...it landed. They were able to fly a few times in the plane.

EDIT: Many glider type devices were created before the Wright Brothers successfully flew.

 

[HermitGuy]

At first glance this just looks like another attempt to refuse to believe any American was first to invent anything.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: HermitGuy
At first glance this just looks like another attempt to refuse to believe any American was first to invent anything.

On second and third glance, looks like another attempt to refuse to believe any American was first to invent anything.


Didn't Da Vinci invent a flying machine way back long ago?

Think the Wrights were the first one that had a motor powered one(this is an airplane everything else is a glider or pseudoglider)

 

[dullard]

If I remember correctly, there was a man who had a flying airplane before the Wright brothers. He was even photographed flying and published in the local newspapers before they came around. However people there felt it was a useless invention and didn't get much publicity beyond that. In fact I think there were a handful of people with working airplanes before the Wright brothers had one. A little later, in a different location, a contest was formed to have the first airplane. The Wright brothers won that contest. They got so much press that everyone now assumes they were the first to actually fly.

Think of it this way. Suppose Anandtech has a contest to see who can first overclock a chip to 5.0 GHz. One day someone will do that and it could form a huge thread with tons of people congratulating that person. But Intel (or AMD) probably had hit 5.0 GHz long before in a test chip...

 

[FrustratedUser]

There were flights done before thr Wright brothers. What they did was the first motorised controlled flight.

 

[guyver01]

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Didn't Da Vinci invent a flying machine way back long ago?

I believe the Wright brother's flyer was based on DaVinci's design.



davinci sketch

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: guyver01

Originally posted by: Nitemare

Didn't Da Vinci invent a flying machine way back long ago?

I believe the Wright brother's flyer was based on DaVinci's design.



davinci sketch

You would be correct. The wife and I saw the monument, hill and just about everything except the plane when we were out there a few months a go. The museum that housed the plane was damaged in a storm and was undergoing remodeling. I've seen plenty of pictures of it though. They were the first that invented an airplane that you could control and maneuver. Everyone before them has basically strapped a pair of wings on a rocket and called it an airplane. Theirs was the first that you could make go up and down, left and right, not just be at the mercy of the winds

 

[FenrisUlf]

An airplane has controlled, sustained flight. Gliders do not have sustained flight (thermalling and various forms of natural lift don't count, definitions take place in still air with standard sea level atmosphere). Anyone can claim anything, if you can't prove it, it's kinda pointless. You could invent a cure for cancer, but if you don't tell anyone, don't document it, what good is it? There were a few previous attempts at controlled flight, but they failed (Sir Gulio Duhet, who, when asked if he was afraid of the dangers of his steam powered airplane about to be launched, said "Sacrifices must be made". He was killed seconds later when his plane crashed, but he made several important contributions to early aircraft design. Especially the idea not to use steam power.)